Category Archives: {F}amily

Read more about the goings-on of our fabulous foursome!

Dog Days of Summer

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We always knew we’d get a dog.  Sure, we could smuggle a cat into our teeny apartment for a few months, but adding a canine companion to our family was impossible until we owned a home.  We closed on our house a few days shy of our first anniversary, and three short months later, we fought our way through a horrible Michigan winter storm to welcome home our wrinkly Weimaraner pup. 

Xanther

We’ve had our ups,
Xanther Snowball

downs,

04-09-05 047.jpg

and in-betweens with this guy.
Good Dog

I always said I wouldn’t be one of those moms who loved their dogs like nothing else…until their kids came along.  It seemed so sad, so cold to dismiss the four-legged friend.  Yet, I too found myself cringing at the sight of dog hair on baby blankets, and his dirty nose nudging the clean toys. 

And I’ll admit there are times that I haven’t completely trusted Xanther, which has caused us to keep a watchful eye on the dog-baby relationship.  Now that they’re both a little older, we’ve let them interact a bit more and it’s been pretty cute to watch them. 

Seeing the wonder in Calder’s eyes as Xanther licks his hand, and hearing his squeals of delight at sloppy wet kisses remind me that he’s not just my dog.  He’s our dog.  Our family dog.  And as much as I might have (possibly will have again soon) thoughts that life would be easier without him around…I know that deep down, I’m a softy for this floppy-eared fella. 

Xanther

Xanther

Sweet Success

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Have you ever had one of those days when you think I couldn’t have planned it more perfectly?  That’s how I’ve felt all day today!  For the past 5 weeks we have been running around like crazy people, moving from one household project to another.  And it seemed like each project spawned another project and before I knew it, I felt practically paralyzed by the enormity of it all!  Not to mention that I have this incredible sensitivity to time frame – I feel like I want e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g done before the baby arrives because I know that it’s going to be temporary insanity at that point!

I am so pleased to report that this week, I finally began feeling as though things are really coming together.  If you’ll indulge me a little, here’s what we’ve accomplished this week:

  • played with pictures
  • blogged
  • dinner with friends 3 nights this week
  • a perfect play date on Tuesday (3 moms, 5 kids and 2.5 of the 6 hours were spent with all children napping!)
  • doctor’s appointment (36 weeks now – great heart rate, I’ve dropped a bit and am apparently at a 3 already…sorry if that’s TMI, but it was surprising to hear since I was only a 3 when I arrived at the hospital after my water broke with Calder)
  • grocery shopped
  • weeded the garden
  • putt in fresh mulch
  • cleaned 4 of the 7 rooms downstairs
  • caulked around tub and toilet
  • washed, dried and ironed the curtains in the kitchen and bath
  • hung our new hummingbird feeder and have already attracted several visitors!!
  • reorganized both mine and hubby’s dressers to better house our junk clothes
  • sang with our worship band at an open air concert on Thursday night
  • became the proud owner of two new desks (courtesy of craigslist)
  • hung the lattice around the deck
  • packed away “wintery” maternity clothes
  • spent some quality time with my folks, though we did put them to work (see desk delivery and lattice)
  • began thinking of Christmas card ideas since I just found oh, about 100 sheets of snowflake vellum leftover from our wedding invitations
  • tried shooting in RAW, but found that it was a little too much for because because I don’t have a grasp on the processing (and had problems getting the pics to my computer and then onto Flickr)
  • read a little more in my most recent book The Calder Game– young adult novel by Blue Balliet (How could I not read a book with my son’s name in the title?!)
  • successfully knitted one full row on the blanket my grandma fixed started for me and I’m hoping to finish it for baby’s pending arrival
  • cleaned the car and installed the freshly cleaned infant car seat
  • put the window A/C in the bedroom window
  • spent precious time with my boys enjoying meals on the deck, plenty of pool time and some snuggle time in there as well!

I know that much of this is obsessive nesting, and for the record I didn’t have a hand in all of these tasks.  As a pathological list-maker, I really don’t think I’ve ever made a list of tasks accomplished, and though it probably doesn’t make for a thrilling read, it makes me feel pretty good to actually see how far we’ve come! 

Blissfully tired, it’s about time I crawl into my freshly made bed, in my air-conditioned room, next to the man of my dreams!

Best Shot Monday ~ Sweet Summer

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I’m a big fan of the better-late-than-never mantra.  While I began this post well over 12 hours ago, our plans changed and well, here it is…

Perhaps it’s the pending arrival of another child that has me so reflective lately, or I suppose it could be the fact that I very recently *finished* Calder’s baby book.  Either way, I felt like sharing a few of my favorite shots that still don’t do justice to the amazing little boy he is becoming. 

Heading in after a tour through Papa’s Garden…

Dirty Bum 

Sitting so well for his second official haircut, and getting the hang of his first sucker…

Small Bribes

Last Thursday, when I believe the temps were well into the 90s and the humidity had to be at least 100%, Katie and I made plans to connect at Hawk Island County Park.  I fell in love with this place last fall when we had a cross country meet there – I just knew that it would be a perfect summer day escape for us!  My expectations were certainly met!  While I don’t have many pictures (I found it tricky to keep an eye on our belongings, stay within arms length of Calder and keep my camera dry) I did manage to snap a few to share our day.

Here’s one of the many gadgets that chill and thrill…(and for the record, the blast of these buckets nearly topples a toddler!)

Water Works

Between shoving yogurt melts and crackers in his face sharing and trying to climb the back of the lounge chair, I managed to take at least one shot of Cooper and Calder just hangin’ out…

Fun with Friends

And my best shot for today, is this little gem.  In the larger version you can really see his furrowed brow as he studies his cracker, the few stray crumbs on his face, and the chubbiness of his little hands.  Beyond that, this picture reminds me of the blissful exhaustion that follows the perfect play on a summer’s day.

A snack and a rest

Splash on over to Tracey’s for more Best Shot Monday.

All better…

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We’ve also successfully replaced the shelf and so far it’s still in tact complete with hanging clothes and all!  We plan to add another bracket which we have to pick up at the store tomorrow as today was spent celebrating my Uncle Chris’s 50th birthday and the completion of his Master’s degree.  I also spent some time with the nearly-weds, my cousin Greg and his fiance Jodie to finalize which song I will be singing in their wedding in a few weeks.  We wrapped up the evening by having pizza with my folks while they ran Calder so ragged that he was asleep about 5 minutes after we got on the road! 

With my baby asleep I settled in for some quality computer time, hoping to learn a little more, and learn I did!  While it’s but a small victory I have to say that in the past two days I have managed to successfully add buttons to my blog which has been a bit of a frustration of mine for a while!  And tonight I downloaded a trial version of Snagit and created a custom header.  I’m not sure that I adore it just yet, but for my first try I thought it wasn’t too bad.  Hopefully I’ll be able to try again soon and create one that isn’t so pixelated.  Any tips and suggestions from more experienced bloggers is greatly appreciated.

I’d also like to create little “flags” (if that’s the proper term) for the titles to my various sections (Calendar, Categories, etc.) like I’ve seen on other blogs.  I think I might know how to create those now using this program, but I’m not sure I know exactly how to plug them into WordPress, so again, any helpful hints you can toss my way are appreciated!